• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 1988

일반적으로 침질탄화법(Nitrocarburizing) 함은 $570^{\circ}C$부근에서 처리하는 페라이트 침질탄화법(Ferritic Nitrocarburizing)을 말하고 있으나, 최근 비교적 고온($700^{\circ}C$)에서 처리하는 오스테나이트 침질탄화법이 개발 연구되어 실용화단계에 있다. 그러나 국내에서는 아직 이러한 처리에 대해서 전혀 알려져 있지 않고 용어조차도 생소한 실정이다. 따라서 본 문헌에서는 F.K.Cherry가 발표한 것을 기초로 하여 오스테나이트 침질탄화법에 대해 설명하고자 한다.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.268-274
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• 1997

Characteristics of plasma nitriding and nitrocarburizing for steam treated sintered steels were studied. Fe-0.8%C powder containing Ni, Cu were sintered at 112$0^{\circ}C$ and steamed at 52$0^{\circ}C$. Temperature of plasma nitriding and nitrocarburizing was varied from 50$0^{\circ}C$ to $600^{\circ}C$. Gas mixture of nitriding was set at $N_2$ : $H_2$ =80:20 (vol.%), but $CH_4gas$ was added 1~2 vol.% for nitrocarburizing. Steam treatment for sintered steels brought not only the formation of oxide layer but also decarburizing near the surface. Decrease in hardness near the surface resulted from the formation of ferrite due to decarburizing. Thus, the low hardness was recovered not with plasma nitriding but with plasma nitrocarburixing. Wear resistance properties of steamed specimens and ni-trocarburized specimens were better than those of nitrided specimens according to the pin-on-disk wear test. On the other hand, the fatigue life of steamed specimen was shorter than that of nitrocaiburized specimen.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.250-253
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• 2007

Plasma nitrocarburizing and plasma oxidizing treatments were performed to improve the wear and corrosion resistance of SKD 11 steel. Plasma nitrocarburizing was conducted for 12 h at $520^{\circ}C$ in the nitrogen, hydrogen and methane atmosphere to produce the $\varepsilon-Fe_{2-3}(N,C)$ phase. It was found that the compound layer produced by plasma nitrocarburising was predominantly composed of $\varepsilon-phase$, with a small proportion of $\gamma'-Fe_4(N,C)$ phase. The thickness of the compound layer was about $5{\mu}m$ and the diffusion layer was about $150{\mu}m$ in thickness, respectively. Plasma post oxidation was performed on the nitrocarburized samples with various oxygen/hydrogen ratio at constant temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. The very thin magnetite($Fe_3O_4$) layer $1-2{\mu}m$ in thickness on top of the compound layer was obtained by plasma post oxidation. It was confirmed that the corrosion characteristics of the nitrocarburized compound layer could be further improved by the application of the superficial magnetite layer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.224-230
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• 2000

Garbon steel(SM35C) was gas nitrocarburized at $580^{\circ}C$ in $55%N_2-40%NH_3-5%CO_2$ mixed gas atmosphere, and then the steel was induction hardened at $850^{\circ}C$. The microstructure of gas nitrocarburized surface layer was observed by optical microscope and SEM. The phase analysis was carried out by X-ray diffraction method. The mechanical properties of gas nitrocarburized SM35C steel was evaluated by hardness, wear and fatigue test. The thickness of compound and diffusion layer were increased with increasing the gas nitrocarburizing time and the densest compound layer was obtained at 3 hours gas nitrocarburizing time. In case of 15sec induction hardening after gas nitrocarburizing, the surface hardness was decreased from 800Hv to 630Hv owing to the decomposition of compound layer, but wear resistance was increased because of increased hardness of diffusion layer. The fatigue strength of induction hardened steel after gas nitrocarburizing, $58kgf/mm^2$, was higher than $41.5kg/mm^2$ of gas nitrocarburized steel and $45kg/mm^2$ of induction hardened steel, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.262-269
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• 1994

This study has been carried out to evaluate effects of alloying elements and nitrocarburizing on rolling contact fatigue life. Manganese has a significant influence on the distribution of retained carbides and microstructural changes after rolling contact fatigue test. The effect of the manganese addition stabilized fine retained carbide particles during rolling contact fatigue life test, and so increased fatigue life markedly. High carbon chromium bearing steel with different matrixes were nitrocarbunzed by austenitic nitrocarburizing process at $850^{\circ}C$ for 4hrs. Rolling contact fatigue life of the nitrocarburized specimen was increased 2 times than full hardening treated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.175-177
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• 2012

A corrosion resistance and hard nitrocarburized layer was distinctly formed on 310 austenitic stainless steel substrate by DC plasma nitrocarburizing. Basically, 310L austenitic stainless steel has high chromium and nickel content which is applicable for high temperature applications. In this experiment, plasma nitrocarburizing was performed in a D.C. pulsed plasma ion nitriding system at different temperatures in $H_2-N_2-CH_4$ gas mixtures. After the experiment structural phases, micro-hardness and corrosion resistance were investigated by the optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, micro-hardness testing and Potentiodynamic polarization tests. The hardness of the samples was measured by using a Vickers micro hardness tester with the load of 100 g. XRD indicated a single expanded austenite phase was formed at all treatment temperatures. Such a nitrogen and carbon supersaturated layer is precipitation free and possesses a high hardness and good corrosion resistance.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.43-52
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• 2020

Various aging treatments were conducted on AISI 630 martensitic precipitation hardening stainless steel in order to optimize aging condition. Aging treatment was carried out in the vacuum chamber of Ar gas with changing aging temperature from 380℃ to 430℃ and aging time from 2h to 8h at 400℃. After obtaining the optimized aging condition, several nitrocarburizing treatments were done without and with the aging treatment. Nitrocarburizing was performed on the samples with a gas mixture of H₂, N₂ and CH₄ for 15 h at vacuum pressure of 4.0 Torr and discharge voltage of 400V. The corrosion resistance was improved noticeably by combined process of aging and nitrocarburizing treatment, which is attributed to higher chromium and nitrogen content in the passive layer, as confirmed by XPS analysis. The optimized condition is finalized as, 4h aging at 400℃ and then subsequent nitrocarburizing at 400℃ with 25% nitrogen and 4% methane gas for 15h at vacuum pressure of 4.0 Torr and discharge voltage of 400V, resulting in the surface hardness of around 1300 HV_0.05 and α'_N layer thickness of around 11 ㎛ respectively.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.716-721
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• 2009

The major drive for the application of low-temperature plasma treatment in nitrocarburizing of austenitic stainless steels lies in improved surface hardness without degraded corrosion resistance. The low-temperature plasma nitrocarburizing was performed in a gas mixture of $N_{2}$, $H_{2}$, and carbon-containing gas such as $CH_{4}$ at $450^{\circ}C$. The influence of the processing time (5~30 h) and $N_{2}$ gas composition (15~35%) on the surface properties of the nitrocarburized layer was investigated. The resultant nitrocarburized layer was a dual-layer structure, which was comprised of a N-enriched layer (${\gamma}_N$) with a high nitrogen content on top of a C-enriched layer (${\gamma}_C$) with a high carbon content, leading to a significant increase in surface hardness. The surface hardness reached up to about $1050HV_{0.01}$, which is about 4 times higher than that of the untreated sample ($250HV_{0.01}$). The thickness of the hardened layer increased with increasing treatment time and $N_{2}$ gas level in the atmosphere and reached up to about $25{\mu}m$. In addition, the corrosion resistance of the treated samples without containing $Cr_{2}N$ precipitates was enhanced than that of the untreated samples due to a high concentration of N on the surface. However, longer treatment time (25% $N_{2}$, 30 h) and higher $N_{2}$ gas composition (35% $N_{2}$, 20 h) resulted in the formation of $Cr_{2}N$ precipitates in the N-enriched layer, which caused the degradation of corrosion resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.27-39
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• 1989

The effect of gas mixing ratios during gas nitrocarburizing treatment on the formation of compound layer and the mechanical properties has been studied for hot work tool steel by using a combined heat treating technique. The thickness of compound and diffusion layers has been shown to grow as a parabolic relation with increasing the amount of ammonia at a given flow quantity of $CO_2$ gas. The compound layer consists mainly of ${\varepsilon}-Fe_3$(C, N) with small amounts of ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4N$ and ${\alpha}$-Fe. The combined heat treated hot work tool steel has shown that the thickness of compound layer increases with increasing nitrocarburizing time, but the rate of growth slows down as gas nitrocarburizing time goes more than two hours. Tensile properties have given a remarkable improvement. In particular, the wear resistance of combined heat treated hot work tool steel has exhibited an improvement of about 165% greater than that obtained from conventional quenching and multi-tempering treatments.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.8-12
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• 1988

This study has been carried out to evaluate gaseous nitrocarburizing treatment undertaken for pure iron at $570^{\circ}C$ in an atmosphere containing 50% endothermic gas, generated from natural gas, and 50% ammonia. The results obtained from the experiment are as follows ; 1) The microstructure of gaseous nitrocarburized pure iron consists of the compound layer on the surface and the diffusion zone beneath it. The compound layer progresses uniformly into ferrite with a thickness of $20{\mu}$ obtained after treating for 3 hours. 2) Chemical analysis has shown that the compound layer has a C/N ratio of 0.19 and that the average combined interstitial content of the compound layer is about 30 atomic percent, which is close to the lower limit of the ${\varepsilon}$-carbonitride phase field in Fe-C-N phase diagram. 3) X-ray diffraction analysis has revealed that the compound layer consists mainly of the c.p.h. phase, ${\varepsilon}-Fe_3$(C.N) and a small amount of $Fe_4N$ and traces of ferrite are also present in the compound layer. 4) The microhardness of the compound layer is about 600 V.H.N and shows a relatively sharp fall-off at the compound layer/diffusion zome interface. 5) The average actual degree of ammonia dissociation is calculated to be 27% for a gaseous nitrocarburizing treatment carried out at $570^{\circ}C$.